Between FY22 and FY23, the CSR expenditures of 1,296 NSE-listed companies under India Inc. increased by 5%, from Rs 148.16 billion to Rs 155.24 billion.
The top three contributors in this category were HDFC Bank (Rs 8.20 billion), Tata Consultancy Services (Rs 7.83 billion), and Reliance Industries (Rs 7.44 billion).
Prime Database Group’s primeinfobase.com revealed that in FY23, ten businesses, including three previously mentioned ones, accounted for 33% of all CSR spending. Tata Steel (Rs 4.80 billion), Oil and Natural Gas Corp (Rs 4.75 billion), ICICI Bank (Rs 4.62 billion), Infosys (Rs 3.91 billion), ITC (Rs 3.65 billion), Power Grid Corporation of India (Rs 3.21 billion), and NTPC (Rs 3.15 billion) were other noteworthy companies among the top 10 in terms of CSR expenditure.
The CSR law, effective since April 2014, mandates businesses meeting financial requirements to allocate 2% of their average net profit for CSR initiatives. The average net profit of 1,296 companies in the past three years has increased from Rs 7.20 trillion in FY22 to Rs 8.14 trillion. Companies were supposed to spend Rs 157.13 billion on CSR but only set aside Rs 155.24 billion, according to an Economic Times report. Businesses transferred Rs 16.43 billion to the Unspent CSR Account, resulting in a difference in future use and remaining unspent.
Public sector units (PSUs) experienced a 17% decrease in spending from FY22, with 56 PSUs spending Rs 31.36 billion in FY23 compared to 59 PSUs’ Rs 37.66 billion in FY22.
The largest allocation in the previous year was to education, followed by healthcare. The largest increase in spending was towards environmental sustainability (76%) followed by education (41%) and rural development (26%).